Hiking to Daniel Ridge Falls
Hiking to Daniel Ridge Falls | Pisgah National Forest | Brevard, NC | January 2024
Our time spent in Pisgah National Forest around Brevard was divided between hiking new trails and fixing some unexpected issues. On our first night in the area, we realized we had a propane leak in the pipes leading to our stove. Then a few days later, the starter in the van gave out. It was quite fortunate that we were so close to Brevard which had exactly what we needed — an Ace Hardware with tools and parts to fix the propane, and an Autozone to replace that starter. Even better is having a husband who knows how to do these things so that they were fixed within hours and hardly interrupted our time spent in on the trails. I can’t say enough about how thankful I am for Curtis and how much I appreciate him! He hadn’t even replaced a starter before, but with his skills in both diagnosing issues and working on cars, all he did was watch a video on Youtube and then immediately swapped ours out!
As for the propane, it certainly helps that he was the one to build our van in the first place so he knew how to fix it. He figured out that it was probably caused by the pipes not being held in place and had too much wiggle room, so it was probably bound to happen at some time, but maybe exacerbated by getting the van stuck in mud and lots of jerking movement to get it out. Overall, we were thankful that these problems happened at a time and place where we were able to stop and take care of them right away, and we’re now even more thankful for all the months we’ve enjoyed with only minor issues! (Side note: the most irritating part about the propane issue is that we own the tools to fix it…but they were all back in storage in Iowa, so we had to buy new tools. If anyone out there reading this is about to build their own van and wants some discounted, only used once tools to set up a propane system, contact us!)
Anyway, after the propane was taken care of on our first morning here, we drove back into Pisgah National Forest and made our way to a hike for the day: Daniel Ridge Falls. We had done another waterfall off this road last year (Cove Creek Falls) and were excited to see another stunning North Carolina waterfall. We had a late breakfast at the trailhead, then set out for our hike. One thing we noticed this week (and remember from last year’s visit) is just how many people are always out doing outdoorsy things — hiking, running, biking, fishing, you name it — even in the middle of a workday in January. It felt so right to be surrounded by like-minded people that prioritize being outside and were also enjoying this beautiful area on a Monday morning in January!
We began on the most direct trail to the falls, though we soon noticed there were several other trails branching off this one that we could have taken to make a much longer loop. But we wanted to make sure we weren’t overdoing it for Charlotte’s sake, so we stuck to the main trail. The trail was wide and well maintained with gradual elevation gain, which made guiding Charlotte up much easier.
When we came to the falls, we found the best view to be off to the side of the trail, up a steep slope. We made our way up and enjoyed sitting here for a few minutes watching the water fall over the cliff face. Because the trail continuing on from here was still wide and well maintained and we still had so much daylight left, we decided to keep going up to see where it took us.
We followed the trail up until we came to a crossroads. After weighing our options, we decided to follow Charlotte’s leading to the right…which didn’t pan out as well as it usually does (you’d be surprised how often she leads us on great trails despite being blind). So instead we continued straight, planning to take this trail down the ridge and meet back up with the road, then road walk back to the trailhead. The trail was much more narrow and muddy, but it ended at a familiar place: the group campsite that we had walk through last year on our way to Cove Creek Falls. From here, we followed the campsite road (which was closed) back to the main road, then walked back up to the trailhead. The road follows the Davidson River, which is enjoyable to walk along and see the rapids and small cascading falls.
After we finished the hike, we drove back the way we came towards the entrance of the forest, and stopped at the visitor center for lunch and to do a little work since we had a bit of cell service here. Then we returned to the dispersed camping area, driving further down the road to a new spot. After hiking an insignificant peak the day before, Curtis had realized that he could actually hike a peak that met his prominence goals from a trailhead off this road, so we decided to camp at the closest spot to that trailhead. When we arrived, I offered to get everything set up so he could get started with the hike in the remaining daylight that we had. For the rest of the afternoon, Charlotte and I went between hanging out at the site and going for walks on the forest road, which was consistently busy with other walkers and bikers.
Curtis: I followed a trail up Presley Cove, which went straight out of the valley following a swollen stream from the recent rains. It eventually met up with a fire access road/mountain bike trail, which – for being January, so far from a biking trailhead, and so late in the day – had quite a few bikers and hikers on it. The trail looped around to a saddle and then followed the ridge upwards towards the peak. Just below the peak, the trail started to contour around and I had to bushwhack the last 100 feet. Unfortunately, there was only one view along the entire hike, so it’s not a peak I would recommend, but it was the first goal peak of the year and great exercise for the afternoon.
